Friday, August 4, 2017

Settled in and keeping busy...

We
were so excited to have a visit from our son Brian and his wife
Kendra! They had previously spent time in England with her brother’s
family, so we only had them for four days. But we made the most of
it! We toured around Genova and then headed to Florence.

The
weather was perfect and the tourist crowds hadn’t hit yet.

Florence is so quaint. Everywhere you look it is just so Italian!

May, June, and July were very busy months for us with many activities. One was a Talent Show Night. It was very entertaining and everyone had a great time.

We have a high percentage of families from Ecuador living in Genova. It is a little bit of a mystery to us why there are so many living here. But they had great fun at the Talent Show and we learned more about their country!

Of course, there is always food at the end of every activity! And Ecuadorian food is very good! But it can't beat Italian!

Some of the local boys who play soccer in the church parking lot. Such a great group of kids!

The
youth (12 to 18 years of age) had a “Missionary Day” where they
went out with the missionaries to see what it is really like. It was
a hot day, but they were troopers and had a great time.

We
recently had our Stake Conference (where all the congregations meet
together). Miles was able to see some of his old friends from when
he was here as a missionary 44 years ago. It was a wonderful reunion
after all these years. One man still had a book that Miles’ father
had given them when they visited. It was amazing and emotional to
see his dad’s handwriting in the front of the book.

When I lived
here 50 years ago, there were not any of our church members here.
When we sat in that rented auditorium and looked out to see how many
people were there, it brought tears to my eyes. The church has
really grown here in Italy.

On
one of our days off, we took a day trip to Arenzano, the little town
I lived in, 50 years ago. We were able to find my apartment building. We spoke to a
nice lady coming up the sidewalk and found out that she lived in the
exact same apartment that my family did! It was a beautiful
coincidence to meet her that day.

I love going back to Arenzano and
reminiscing on the magical time it was for me. My family would get
gelato and walk along this “lungomare” in the evenings. It
hasn’t changed at all, except that the trees are a bit bigger.

Arenzano has a beautiful beach that gets very crowded in the
summertime with sun-loving Italians.

On
the first Sunday of each month, all of our Young Single Adults meet
together after church for “pranzo” (which is lunch). It is so
much fun for everyone to get together. I will admit that it is a LOT
of work for me cooking for that many people.

I
feel like I am “feeding the 5000” and always worry that we won’t
have enough. But somehow we always do.

I cannot begin to count how many batches of brownies we have made for the activities. But the Italians LOVE the brownies.

And the Sloppy Joes!

This
is a wonderful lady named Cate, from South Africa, who we visit
weekly. She is not able to get out of her house, so she loves the
company. She has a lot of frogs all around her apartment. She says
that they remind her to Frequently
Rely On
God. I love frogs
and I LOVE that motto!

Once
again it’s transfer time. We had a little goodbye dinner since a
couple of them were returning home to
the states. It’s always
hard to say goodbye!

Institute
graduation. This is from the entire stake, not just the Genova kids.
Proud of their hard work and dedication.

P-Day(preparation day) at Staglieno Cemetery. This is more like a museum than a cemetery. The marble statues are incredible.

Portofino
is a little over an hour’s drive from Genova. Such a gorgeous
little fishing village and home to many yachts of the rich and
famous. We love the colors of the picturesque buildings
and villas.

We
would love to own this yacht and sail around the Riviera.

But this is more our style and what we could afford!

We
took care of a missionary who was sick. She
loved sleeping in our big chair.

Genova
is a big port city. We get these huge cruise ships that dock in the
port and the tourist population greatly increases. It is hard to
tell from the picture how gigantic these ships are.

Our
Genova Zone (minus the San
Remo sisters) after our 4th
of July picnic. Great missionaries! We are so blessed to be serving here in Italy! We absolutely LOVE our mission!